There are guitar players who follow trends. And then there are guitar players who drag entire eras back to life. Brian Setzer didn’t just play rockabilly — he resurrected it, electrified it, and blasted it into arenas that had long forgotten the slap-back echo of the 1950s.Rebel With a Gretsch is Netflix’s deep dive into the firebrand who turned vintage twang into a modern movement.From the moment a teenage Setzer picked up his iconic orange Gretsch 6120, it was clear he wasn’t interested in fitting in. While the late ’70s were drowning in punk rebellion and disco fever, Setzer found salvation in the ghosts of Eddie Cochran, Gene Vincent, and Elvis Presley. He didn’t just admire them — he studied them, absorbed them, and then injected their spirit into something louder, sharper, and unapologetically modern.The Stray Cats were born out of that obsession.With a pompadour defying gravity and a hollow-body guitar slung low, Setzer led the trio out of New York and straight into the UK, where audiences hungry for raw, stripped-down rock ’n’ roll turned them into a phenomenon. “Rock This Town.” “Stray Cat Strut.” “Runaway Boys.” Songs that sounded like they’d been smuggled out of a 1956 jukebox — yet somehow felt brand new.The documentary explores how Setzer’s revival wasn’t nostalgia. It was rebellion.Music historians, fellow guitar legends, and Setzer himself unpack the discipline behind the flash — the jazz training, the obsession with tone, the meticulous control behind every wild-looking performance. Archival footage shows sweat-soaked stages, screaming crowds, and a young musician determined to keep rockabilly from becoming a museum piece.But the story doesn’t end with the Stray Cats.When the ’80s faded and trends shifted again, Setzer pivoted — not to survive, but to expand. The Brian Setzer Orchestra exploded onto the scene in the ’90s, spearheading the swing revival with brass-blasted swagger. “Jump, Jive an’ Wail” and “Gettin’ in the Mood” didn’t just chart — they dominated. Suddenly, big band was cool again. Suits replaced flannel. Horn sections replaced distortion pedals. And at the center of it all was that same Gretsch guitar, cutting through it like a blade.Rebel With a Gretsch doesn’t shy away from the pressure of reinvention, the weight of keeping a genre alive, or the personal battles that come with decades in the spotlight. It paints Setzer as both a traditionalist and a restless innovator — a musician who refused to let rock’s roots rot beneath layers of passing trends.The film also explores the craftsmanship. The hollow-body resonance. The signature finger snap of slap-back delay. The precision of his picking hand. This isn’t just a music documentary — it’s a love letter to tone, to wood and wire, to the unmistakable growl of a Gretsch plugged into a cranked amp.Setzer didn’t chase the mainstream. He built his own lane — lined with chrome, neon, and the unmistakable rhythm of an upright bass snapping against strings.In an era where authenticity is often manufactured, Brian Setzer stands as proof that rebellion doesn’t always mean destruction. Sometimes it means preservation. Sometimes it means taking the past, polishing it, and throwing it back at the world louder than ever.Netflix Presents: Rebel With a Gretsch — The Brian Setzer Story is more than a documentary. It’s a reminder that rock ’n’ roll never truly dies.It just waits for someone brave enough to plug it back in.
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